On September 13th, we will celebrate our annual Water Communion Sunday. This is a Unitarian Universalist ritual that marks the beginning of the new church year. Appropriately, this will also be the first service when the Choir will sing together for the first time since June, when we went on our summer break.
During this ceremony, we will each bring water to the service, say a few words about the source of the water or what the water symbolizes, and pour it into a common bowl.
One of the songs that our Choir will perform to celebrate Water Communion is a lovely hymn written by 19th century Baptist minister, the Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, entitled “Shall We Gather At the River?”
Here is the first verse and refrain:
Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have trod,
with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God?
Yes, we’ll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river,
gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.
To understand this hymn, let’s put ourselves back in July 1864 in New York City, when Rev. Lowry wrote it:
- It’s hot and sweltering. There’s no air conditioning; Thomas Edison didn’t invent his light bulb until 15 years later.
- The country was embroiled in the 4th year of the Civil War; General Robert E. Lee didn’t surrender until 9 months later.
- New York City was in the midst of a double epidemic: typhus, spread by lice in unsanitary conditions; and typhoid fever, spread through food and water contaminated by human waste. The hospitals are over-run with patients, and antibiotics weren’t invented until more than 60 years later.
In the midst of this, while meditating on the afterlife and the river of life described in Revelation 22:1—"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God."—Rev. Lowry wrote “Shall We Gather At the River?” At the time, so many hymns had been written about the “river of death” (crossing over to the afterlife), but very few celebrated the “river of life” on the other side. While he might not have set out to write a wartime comfort hymn, his devastated congregation would have found solace in singing the hymn.
In a similar way, we can move beyond the original intent of this hymn so that it becomes a poetic reflection of our Water Communion service:
- Coming together after separation. The hymn starts with an invitation to gather together as a community at the water, which reflects what our Water Communion does. The ceremony celebrates the reunion of the community at the start of the new church year.
- Many different beliefs, one loving community. In the hymn, people arrive from different places, with different experiences and values, and gather at the river to share a holy experience. Similarly, in our Water Communion, each person’s water is distinct, but when poured together in our bowl, it becomes one body of water, which symbolizes our one loving community.
- The interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The hymn describes the “crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God.” We can interpret this imagery as water being the Source of Life—essential for, and connecting, all living beings. Water is sacred across all traditions.
“Shall We Gather At the River?” is one of the greatest American songs ever written. The renowned secular Jewish composer, Aaron Copland, who was always striving to capture an authentic American musical voice, selected and arranged this song, in 1952, as one of only 10 songs across his two volumes of “Old American Songs.” The recording of this song with Aaron Copland accompanying the great African-American baritone William Warfield is a classic.
We are so fortunate in our Unitarian Universalist community to be able to draw upon many different sources of inspiration for our worship services!
Susan Shaw and Steve Morihiro, both longtime choir members, are the Co-Directors of Music Ministries.